


Blinding Light

by Hollie47



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28451694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollie47/pseuds/Hollie47
Summary: Tom Paris and Kathryn Janeway explore some caves and things don't go to plan.
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

Shining her torch around the dark, mossy cave, Kathryn watched as the light danced between the ground and walls. The air around her was thinner than she was used to and the air held a very unpleasant smell but it didn’t deter her from her mission. There was supposed to be dilithium veins running through the walls of the caves but neither her or Tom had found any evidence of it as of yet.

Taking a few steps closer to Tom, she shined her light where his was and saw what he was looking at; a mushroom that had somehow ended up growing on the ceiling of the cave. Looking at his tricorder readings she was surprised to find out they were edible. Any food, even if it was a fungus, was better than some of the meals Neelix had tried making recently which were mostly some forms of mushy soup or dehydrated alien fruit.

Hearing something dripping, Kathryn concentrated on the sound for a few moments and her eyes lit up. She was almost positive it was the sound of water dripping into a larger source of water; she knew that sound anywhere. Running a quick scan of the caves around them, she furrowed her brows in confusion when nothing came back on her readings. Knowing what she was hearing wasn’t in her head, she made a quick decision.

“Tom, I think I hear water dripping which may lead to something but I’m not sure yet. If you keep on checking for the dilithium veins and more of those mushroom things, I’m going to go investigate the dripping and check for the dilithium while I’m there. We’ll keep an open communication line just in case we spot something. Does that sound okay with you?” Kathryn said, opening the link between their comm. badges.

“If you need me for any reason just give me a yell. Be safe please,” Tom replied, gently taking Kathryn’s hand for a moment and giving it a quick squeeze.

“I will, be safe too.” Smiling at Tom, she felt him let go of her hand as he went back to slowly exploring the part of the cave he was in. It was large, like a dome, the roof was at least twelve feet high and it had five tunnels leading in an out of it.

Not able to get the smile off her face as she headed towards the sound of the dripping water, she thought back to when she and Tom had first got together. Out of all places it was on the holodeck and she was dressed as Queen Arachnia and Tom as Captain Proton. They had just finished a chapter of the holonovel together, one where Queen Arachnia tried to seduce Captain Proton, and once it had finished the sexual tension she felt between them boiled over, and Tom, ever so smoothly, pulled her close and pressed a searing kiss to her lips and she had kissed him back with just as much passion.

Now here there were, four months later, on an abandoned planet together trying to find dilithium. She wasn’t usually one to go on away missions but the ship was badly damaged and it needed all hands on deck to help fix it. Being the captain, she didn’t want to put any extra stress on her crew so she grabbed Tom and said they’d do the scout mission using the Delta Flyer.

Taking a moment to stand still and listen for the dripping, Kathryn faced each direction and ran her hand over the cave walls, finally deciding to go left. Shining her torch all around the chamber she entered, she noticed more of the mushrooms and decided to follow the small trail of them which lead further into the cave. Taking turn after turn down some smaller corridors, Kathryn could hear the water drops getting louder and louder. Turning one last corner, she stopped dead and pushed herself against the wall.

Listening to the area around her, she could still hear the sound of dripping water but something else caught her attention. Something sounded like very soft whispers and it put her on high alert. Taking a cautious step forward while keeping her torch facing the ground, a blinding light shone all around her. Unable to see anything, she backed up against the wall and screamed out as a sharp, burning pain engulfed her left shoulder. 

Falling to her knees, she held her shoulder tightly, waiting for the pain to subside. Watching as the source of the light disappeared; she shone her torch around and saw nothing. Trying her open line with Tom, she got no response. Hitting her communications badge once more, she swore under her breath as she realised something must be blocking its signal.

Noticing blood on her right hand, she touched her shoulder and gasped. The wound was bleeding and the initial pain had gone but boy was she in agony. It still felt as if someone had sliced through her skin with a butter knife. Gripping her shoulder, she put pressure on the wound and tried to remember the way she had come. 

Turning corner after corner, she felt her head start to spin and keeping her focus was becoming harder. Seeing the faint glow of the beam of a flashlight, Kathryn headed towards it. She tried to call out for help but no sound would come out her mouth. She felt the air around her getting thinner and thinner. Taking a few more steps forward she saw Tom in the distance. Gathering all of her strength, she called out to him, letting out a small gasp as the pain in her shoulder shot through her body.

“Kathryn!” Tom called back, the light of his torch landing on her; the red blood from her shoulder glistening in the beam.

Watching as Tom ran over to her, she tried to take a step forward but everything started to spin, her vision went funny, and she could hear a loud ringing in her ear. Closing her eyes for a moment she felt weightless and like she was falling. Feeling strong arms wrap around her, she opened her eyes long enough to look at Tom. His blue eyes were full of worry and concern, he was whispering something to her but she couldn’t understand it. She felt herself being picked up, her feet leaving the ground, as Tom carried her. She could make out some shapes but it was getting harder to keep her eyes open. Her shoulder was on fire, sending pain into her arm and neck but none of that could top the tiredness she felt as she closed her eyes and everything around her went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Entering the Delta Flyer as quickly as he could, he knelt down and placed Kathryn on the floor, checking her vital signs before closing the hatch and locking it. Grabbing the med kit, he knelt down and opened it, scanning Kathryn with the medical tricorder.

“Computer, increase oxygen by ten percent,” Tom commanded, noticing that Kathryn’s oxygen levels were low.

Undoing the front of her uniform, he carefully took it off her, followed by the grey undershirt, leaving her lying there in her grey tank top with her injury now clearly visible. Running the tricorder over the wound, Tom let out a sigh of relief when he realised it was only a flesh wound. Grabbing the dermal regenerator out of the med kit, he ran it over the area, watching as the wound slowly healed itself.

Satisfied with the closing of the wound, he scanned her once more and found a sedative in her system. Furrowing his brow, he wondered how it got there. Going through the different hypospray vials, he found the one he was after and injected into her neck. Knowing it would take a while before Kathryn woke up, Tom picked her up and carried her to the bed, laying her down on it.

Heading to the helm of the Delta Flyer, Tom ran a scan on the caves to see if he could pick up on anything that wasn’t supposed to be there. From where he landed he could clearly see the entry into the caves and he kept an eye on it while running more scans around them. He knew that something wasn’t right but he needed the sensor readings to back up his gut feeling.

\---

Opening her eyes, Kathryn squinted as the light shone down on her. Yawning, she sat up and looked at her left shoulder, running her finger over the healed wound. Letting a small smile cross her face, she got off the bed and headed to the front of the Delta Flyer, knowing that’s where Tom would be.

“How are you feeling?” Tom asked, hearing footsteps getting closer.

“I feel a lot better now, thank you. Are we still on the planet?” Kathryn asked, looking out of the view screen and seeing the sun setting in the distance.

“We are, I was going to head back to Voyager but then my gut told me that something wasn’t right about this situation. I think whoever shot you are still on the planet and they’re hiding under some kind of cloaking device. I have it narrowed down to the other side of the caves I believe,” Tom replied, bringing up the sensor readings and showing them to her.

“I think I may be able to help narrow them down and your gut was right, we don’t know if these aliens are friendly or not. They could have followed us back to Voyager and attacked the ship and the way she is right now, she’s not up for another fight any time soon,” Kathryn said, sitting down at the operations console.

Running different algorithms on the readings in front of her, she calibrated the sensors and brought up her findings on the view screen. “Right there, in the little cloaked ship. From my readings, it’s smaller than the Delta Flyer and it only has phasers. It wouldn’t stand a chance against us but it may also be a scout ship and their main ship is somewhere close by,” Kathryn said, getting up from her spot and walking over to where her uniform lay on the ground.

Excusing herself for a moment, she quickly went into the small room and found her luggage. Pulling out the top half of her other uniform, Kathryn put it on, swapping over her pips and comm. badge to the new uniform. Joining Tom once more, she checked the scanners before turning to the man. “Hail them please, Tom, I think it’s time we talked to our friends over there.”

“Channel open.”

“Hello, I’m Captain Kathryn Janeway from the U.S.S Federation Star ship Voyager, may I ask why you attacked us?”

Seeing an image pop up on the view screen, Kathryn studied the person on the other side. She couldn’t tell much as he was dressed in solid black and had a helmet on that also seemed to double as a breathing apparatus.

“I am Runtig, the dilithium in those caves is ours. Return whatever you have stolen from the planet.”

Raising an eyebrow, Kathryn pulled her shirt down and addressed the man as calmly as she could. “We haven’t stolen anything from the planet. We also came here to look for the dilithium but we couldn’t find any. Does your race have any claim to this planet?”

“We saw this planet so it’s ours, l insist you leave at once before we are forced to take action.”

“We will leave peacefu...” Stopping mid-sentence as the view screen went black then returned to showing the view in front of them, Kathryn let out a long sigh. “I guess we are leaving, start her up Tom.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Tom replied, initialising the takeoff procedures.

“Can you believe he cut me off?” Kathryn asked, taking a moment to process the conversation.

“I can, he’s adamant that everything is his. He was a jerk,” Tom replied as he guided them through the atmosphere of the planet.

“Tom, take us to the moon and hide in its orbit, please. I want to see if our friends follow us out or not.” Watching as they slowly manoeuvred into the position she wanted them in, she set the Delta Flyer to run scans on anything and everything exiting or entering the planet’s atmosphere or orbit. 

“So, what’s the plan from here?” Tom asked, turning his chair to face Kathryn.

“The plan is we wait and stay hidden for the next half hour and if our friends still haven’t moved we will head back to Voyager. When the repairs are complete on the ship, we’ll bring her here and we can harvest those mushrooms and see if we can locate any more dilithium,” Kathryn replied, getting up from her seat and stretching her legs.

“Yum, mushrooms for every meal,” Tom sarcastically said, rolling his eyes.

“It’s better than leola root anything for every meal,” Kathryn replied, rolling her shoulder slowly.

“Is your shoulder still sore?” Tom asked, getting up and grabbing the medical tricorder and scanning the area, making sure the wound hadn’t reopened.

“It’s a little stiff, Tom, nothing to worry about,” Kathryn replied, feeling Tom gently poke around the area through her uniform, checking for himself.

“It seems fine on all readings but when we get back to Voyager I’d like for The Doctor to have a look at it just in case I missed something,” Tom said, checking the tricorder readings one more time. “Do you need any pain killers?” he added, hoping she wasn’t in any sort of discomfort.

“Tom, it’s fine, it really is, it’s just a little tender and I think I’ll be good without and pain relief,” Kathryn said, putting a comforting hand on Tom’s shoulder.

“I just worry about you and I don’t like to see you in pain or discomfort,” Tom replied, pulling her in for a hug as he didn’t know what else to do. Placing a kiss on her head, he felt her head rest against his chest, just for moment, before she pulled back.

“If anything changes you’ll be the first to know,” Kathryn said, sitting back down in her chair and checking to see if anything had changed.

Seeing the exact same readings appearing on the console, Kathryn turned her attention away and picked up her PADD which she had left on the floor, leaning up against the wall. Going through the ship updates, she made sure to pay attention to what was fixed and what still needed repairing. Marking off a few things that needed approval, she continued to scroll on the PADD, this time going over some modifications Seven wanted to make to Astrometrics.

Hearing a beep from the console, she put her PADD aside and looked at the readings. “It looks like our friends are leaving the planet.”

“Hopefully they don’t spot us and want to pick a fight,” Tom replied, flying a little closer to the moon.

“They are heading in the opposite direction to us. There is nothing on long range scans which indicate another ship is close by. And they just jumped to warp two,” Kathryn said, looking over at Tom.

“Should I get us out of here before they turn back?” Tom asked, looking to Kathryn to see what she wanted to do.

“I think that is a good idea, once we clear the moon go straight to warp four,” Kathryn replied, making sure the alien ship hadn’t turned back.

Watching what was going on out the view screen, Kathryn was able to see some of the craters on the moon’s surface, they were larger than she expected and almost looked like they were caused by an explosion instead of a comet or meteorite. Seeing the vast blackness of space as they headed away from the planet, she felt the Delta Flyer jump into warp as the stars started flying by like little white dots.

Relaxing into her chair, she let a small smile grace her face as she watched Tom fly them back home. Back home to Voyager where she was eager to return to her duties and figure out a way how to get them back here, hopefully without any interference so they could mine some of the dilithium that they desperately needed to make it back to Earth.


End file.
